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C64 Commando Arcade SE (2015)

After discussing how Chris Butler himself returned to C64 Space Harrier to improve on the rushed Pal version, for the NTSC release, i thought it only fair we looked at how others had taken to improving his work, starting with Commando:

The original version, much like Space Harrier was rushed out for a deadline (think Chris coded C64 Commando inunder 2 months)....so it's fantastic to see what could of been, if Elite had given him a lot more time.

Wanted to return to this before year was out, to add why C64 original turned out the way it did, at hands of Chris Butler, as i so often unfairly see it compared next to the XE GS version, done by different team under different circumstances.

This was Chris Butler's 1st real BIG coding conversion and Elite gave him all of 8 weeks to produce it.

He joined Elite in October'85 and Elite wanted Commando at retail in time for the essential Xmas market and during said 8 weeks, Chris had to learn new coding techniques (including splitting sprites), just to make conversion possible.

The original version he wrote had 4 of the coin-op's 8 levels, however Rob Hubbard told Elite his (stunning) SID music neeeded 6K of music and there wasn't that much left, so Steve Wilcox, head of Elite, had Chris remove level 3.

Had Chris of not wasted time coding extra level, hopefully the bugs in Pal code could of been sorted.

Chris also HATED multiload C64 titles, so crammed as much as he could into a single load on Space Harrier, Ghosts N Goblins and Commando (cue G NG only having 4 levels when coin-op had 6)

Maybe 1 day people who insist on comparing commercial C64 Space Harrier and Commando to XEGS and homebrew A8 versions will be honest enough to make all the above clear, in interest of balance.